Feedback and Growth Mindset: Nurturing a Growth Mindset Through Feedback with Middle School Students

The purpose of this research study was to explore how a teacher can nurture a growth mindset in students using feedback and assessment, inviting them to take initiative and responsibility in their learning process. The research questions sought to answer how a teacher’s beliefs about the malleability of intelligence and ability impacts students’ beliefs and mindset as well as to explore the practices used by teachers in giving feedback to students that nurture a growth mindset. Five teachers, along with their classes of middle school students, were surveyed to assess mindset towards learning. To dig deeper into the questions of mindset, interviews with eleven students from one class and focus group discussions with the three other classes were also conducted. While no statistically significant correlation could be drawn between teacher and student mindset in the quantitative data, qualitative results highlighted the importance of the choices that teachers make in fostering a growth mindset in their students